When Dark Falls rewritten
by wen.but for love
Summary: ABANDONED! Inside for details, look out for new RanmaPokemon.
1. Prologue

When Dark Falls

Prologue

20th May 2005

"Get in there and learn it boy, or aren't you a martial artist?" a large man in a dingy gray gi pushed a small boy into a large pit. This wasn't the first time it had happened. The third actually, but once was bad enough. Genma Saotome was not the smartest man around, and lacked much in the realm of logic. Genma had recently come across the training scroll for an unbeatable art, the Neko-ken. He chuckled as he thought about it. Finally, he and Tendo would be free from their damned master. So thinking, he went to the nearest town for a drink to celebrate the end of the dreaded master of Anything Goes Martial Arts.

In the pit, the small boy, Ranma Saotome, was beset with starved cats ripping at him and at the smell of fish on him. The boy felt pain, unbearable pain; despair, depression, anger, intense negative emotions springing forth from the well of pain in him. Subconsciously, he channeled his ki through his body. Looking upward at the opening that was his gateway to freedom, his desire to escape coupled with his intense negative emotions channeling his ki, and an astounding jump of 40 FEET landed him near his pack which he hurriedly pulled on, wanting to get away as fast as possible.

Unfortunately, when he jumped many of the cats were still on him, and had come out of the dreaded pit with him and continued attacking him as he pulled on his pack. With the moon at its fullest, Ranma had more light to work with and did his best to evade the attacks of the enraged felines. For some strange cosmic sized reason, evading and trying to counter attack moved him in a series of seals never seen before on earth, and suddenly pulled at Ranma. An instant later, Ranma Saotome was gone.

In another realm, far up in the night sky, 10 large forms gathered. It was a bi-annual gathering they had, in which they discussed the happenings in their world, namely the Pokemon world. As happened every 50 years, the mystical flows around them changed, but they'd known for so long, that they didn't pay any attention to it.

Reacting to a portal in another realm, the mystic energies combined with trace elements of the legendaries power and eventually formed another portal. However it was only after they'd left that the exit portal took shape at ground level, dropping a bruised and battered shape on the ground. It didn't move, and wouldn't for a while yet.


	2. Living

When Dark Falls

Chapter 1

29th May 2005 (original)

21st July 2005 (rewrite)

It stirred, not remembering. It groaned before sitting up and looking around blearily, not recognizing its surroundings. Then everything flooded back, the pain, the fear, the hurt, the anger. 8 year old Ranma Saotome cried, he thought his poppa loved him, wanted the best for him, so how could he hurt him like that?

Ranma eventually stopped; not having enough exposure to his father's lessons of "men don't cry" Ranma only felt slightly guilty crying. He stood and shouldered his pack, determined to find out exactly where he was.

Ranma walked and walked, finding bushes laden with berries and other fruit on the way. These he stored in pockets and boxes on his bag, along with a few for the road. Suddenly, he heard cries of pain, anger, and fighting. Ranma dashed toward the sound, and came across a strange sight: there were several birds of a type he'd never seen before, fighting a four-legged creature that was cream and grey in color with black eyes, a bushy tail, and several scratches and cuts on it.

Knowing it could be some unknown custom in the wild, Ranma stood back and repressed the hurt he felt for the little creature. His could see there was food in the equation, but after a year of his father's influence, logic wasn't his strongest point. Ranma's eyes watered whenever the critter took a hit, smiled quietly when it got in a hit on any of the birds. Finally, after an excruciating 3 minutes, the birds flew away with several berries, and the bushy fighter collapsed in exhaustion.

Ranma almost ran forward on impulse, but from previous experience restrained himself, and slowly crept toward the strange animal, simultaneously drawing out a handful of berries from his pack. When he was a foot away, the little creature seemed to sense him, and tried to stand and growl, but the effort was futile and it fell back on the ground with a whimper of pain. Ranma set his pack down and put his berries in front of the little creature while assessing the injuries and mentally cataloguing how to best help it heal.

"Vee, eevee." It had sniffed the fruit to ensure it wasn't drugged, and then eaten them. Turning, the eevee saw the human was studying it, and felt somehow that the human was no threat.

Ranma gazed into its eyes, and spoke clearly, "my name is Ranma Saotome, and I'd like to help you. Will you let me?"

"vee?" So this human had a name, it had heard about humans that captured pokemon with pokeballs, but really it had no choice right now. It was far too tired and injured to heal in time to find more food. "Eevee, vee." It nodded.

Ranma hurriedly pulled out water and cloth, and set to helping the little creature.

………

By that night, eevee had healed enough to travel, and sat on Ranma's shoulder. Under the moonlight, the pair came to a clearing and settled for the night. Ranma gave eevee's injuries another check before crawling into his sleeping bag for the night. In a hole under a tree root, the eevee gazed out at the human, this Ranma, and somehow knew he'd found himself a true friend.

The next morning, Eevee woke to find Ranma wasn't in his sleeping bag. His sensitive hearing, not as good as a Pikachu's but still good, heard sounds of rapid movement from nearby, and found Ranma in a clearing going through an Anything Goes Kata.

During their training journey, Genma was always more bothered about his own stomach than anything else, and had carried any supplies while relegating the task of scroll and equipment carrying to Ranma. Therefore, when Ranma had grabbed his pack, he was also taking all the training scrolls he and his father would be using, apart from his clothes, sleeping bag, and medical equipment.

Ranma had awoken that morning at the crack of dawn and decided that being in an alien place wasn't an excuse for a lax in his Martial Arts training. To that end, Ranma had gone through all the Kata he already knew, and then started on the more advanced Kata. After 3 years of the basic and mid level Kata, Ranma knew he was ready for the next level, and so was going through an advanced-mid level Kata that his father would have procrastinated several months before teaching him.

Eevee watch, fascinated, as Ranma went through the Kata, not getting distracted when a pidgey swept down and plucked a caterpi from a foot to Ranma's left. Eevee likened the Ranma's morning activities to a fighting pokemon, which he'd seen once take down a lickingtung with ease. As a normal type, it was critical not to get hit by a fighting type, so Eevee decided that as soon as possible it'd get Ranma to practice while Eevee dodged.

"Vee! Eevee vee!" Eevee raced down to his new friend. Ranma stopped and picked up the furry animal, and smiled. He'd had a cat once and this strange creature reminded him strongly of it. "Vee vee? Eevee?" Eevee mimicked Ranma's Kata, moving his paws around.

Ranma seemed to get the message, "you wanna practice with me?" an affirmative response and he smiled and began the Kata again.

………

That night, Ranma slept late, cleaning up more slowly after a long day of training. He'd finally gotten past the mid-advanced katas, and would start modifying them for Eevee the next day.

He idly looked over at where Eevee was curled up, his silver fur glistening in the moonlight. He looked closer; he couldn't be entirely sure, but it seemed as if a cloak of darkness had covered Eevee for a few moments, like a blanket. He stopped and watched; there it was again! And it actually stayed this time!

Softly moving over, he touched it. It was cold, but not solid. He could only feel its effects, not the thing itself, and he was amazed. Eevee shook itself awake and gazed at him intently curious, "vee?" Ranma shook his head, "No matter, I don't know what that blanket thing was, but I now know what to name you, Shroud."

………

A few years passed, Shroud and Ranma grew closer, boy and pokemon grew older; Ranma progressed through his scrolls at almost breakneck speed. Where his father would have insisted that he was doing something wrong and spend a long time "correcting" him, Ranma was now more in touch with himself and could judge for himself when he was actually ready.

He had modified the Anything Goes Katas for Eevee, allowing Eevee to use more speed coupled with his two front paws and tail. Ranma felt that ki manipulation and projection were their ultimate goals, and the completion of the first part of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts. It would allow him to move onto more powerful techniques like the Umisen-ken and Yamasen-ken.

So far though, all he knew was how to manipulate his ki to enhance himself in terms of speed, strength, and endurance. The scrolls he had merely talked about ki as a circulating power in the body that enabled it to survive; the unknown factor in the question of "chicken or egg" about how the body came to life. He just knew it had to be in one of the scrolls in his pack; he just needed to find it, but when he did, he just knew he'd master it dead fast.

……

He studied the scroll with great intensity; it was making no sense. Why would he need to feel an emotion? He didn't want to be constantly angry; how could he pull himself away from it long enough to have a proper conversation with someone? How could he feel friendly when he was facing an opponent who possibly wanted to maim or kill him?

He sighed; at least he knew what not to do, which was to use a negative emotion, and how to avoid ki blasts, which was to either become devoid of emotion or moving. Idly he wondered where Shroud had gone to, he usually wasn't usually gone for this long; Shroud appeared just then, panting. But that wasn't what surprised Ranma; Shroud had appeared out of a black bubble that had emerged from the ground! He wasn't sure, but that could be what Shroud's ki was like.

"Vee!" Ranma smiled at him, "hey little fella, where've you been? I've been meaning to ask you what you make of this bit in the scroll." Shroud looked at it carefully; it still amazed Ranma that an animal could _read_ Japanese, never mind that he himself seemed to be speaking some foreign language. "Vee, eevee vee." Shroud had apparently finished reading and was trying to tell him something; Ranma raised an eyebrow, something he'd learnt in the past few years, "All or nothing? Well I suppose it's possible."

………

Near to their settling site, Ranma knew of a set of bushes and trees that held abundant fruit. He'd been to almost every one of the bushes, and today was going for the last one. Searching near the bottom, where he knew the largest berries were, Ranma was surprised to come across a pair of dark glasses. Unknown to him, it was actually a pokemon item, but decided anyway that Eevee would like it; perhaps it would help him find a name for his friend? Of course, Ranma wondered, who'd be stupid enough to leave around something like this?

…

Up in a hot-air balloon, James suddenly sneezed and wondered who was talking about him.

…

That evening, Eevee finished his berries and juice, and looked up at Ranma, only to find his friend gazing right back. Ranma smiled, and brought out the glasses which he'd washed in the nearby stream, "these are for you, little guy, they should go nicely on you." And with that pushed the small set of shades onto the pokemon's face. At first Eevee didn't know what was going on, but then realized the darkness felt welcoming, inviting, and awakening.

Ranma watched his little friend for a reaction and for a moment was disappointed that none came forth immediately. Then it happened; Eevee suddenly began to glow, an unearthly white glow, and changed shape, becoming larger. For his part, Ranma had to shield his eyes, but was still able to discern the change in his friend. When the glow faded and the change complete, the moonlight revealed a dark shape. Ranma gaped, Eevee was no longer Eevee; he was now jet black, with golden eyes that held no pupils, and sky blue marks on his body. The expressionless eyes seemed to inexplicably soften and light up when they set onto Ranma, and nuzzled his friend.

Ranma was still shocked, but somewhere inside knew it was still his friend no matter how his outward appearance changed. Ranma stroked his friend's fur and found it velvety where it used to be bushy and smooth, even on the marks; now calmer and noticing more, Ranma saw there were actually 8 marks: a small circle on the first joint of each leg, a circle round its tail, one round each ear, and one between his eyes. Ranma smiled and spoke quietly, "I guess 'Shroud' fits you rather well." A happy, contented purr escaped his friend, "umbreon…"

………

The next morning during their practice, Shroud demonstrated his new abilities. Where Eevee could only form and use an aura, Shroud's new innate ki abilities formed a black ball of energy just in front of his central circle, and let it go, sending it flying into a grove of trees where it exploded with tremendous force. Ranma observed closely and saw that when the energy ball formed, Shroud's marks and eyes glowed, and that when the ball was released the marks briefly flared a different color; which color he couldn't be sure, but it had looked something like green for the marks and white for the eyes.

Ranma grinned widely and ran up to the large cat and grabbed it in a monstrous hug, "You did it! You did it! Isn't this great! Now we can both use ki projection! Wow, Mom would have been proud." This caused Ranma's face to lose some of its happiness; he didn't even know if his mother was still even alive. Shroud seemed to realize what his friend was feeling and rubbed his 3 foot high, soft cuddly form against him. This brought Ranma out of his depressing thoughts and scratched Shroud behind his ears. His father's voice softly said in his mind, "it will make you weak." But Ranma ignored him. That was the man who had pushed him into the pit of cats.

………

He was eleven now, and Shroud had grown. He could no longer sit and ride on Ranma's shoulder because of his now nearly 4 foot height. Ranma himself had grown too, now about 5 foot in height. He'd found an egg not so long ago, and carried it around with him while training with Shroud, which was always fun. They looked over the ridge down at a town.

"It's been a while you know? It's been so long since we've had anyone else to talk to; wouldn't it be nice?" Ranma turned to Shroud, who seemed to shrug. How he pulled of those human actions was beyond him, the eye twitch, shrug, eye roll, Shroud really was special, "Hey over there! It looks like they've more like you! Why don't we go there first?" Shroud peered intently; he saw several Tauros, a Muk, a Hitmonchan. Nothing he couldn't handle with his new abilities.

"Umbreon…"


	3. Of Friends and Family

When Dark Falls

Chapter 2

1st June 2005 (original)

24th July 2005 (rewrite)

Ranma descended into the wooded area slowly, gazing around and taking in his surroundings. He was amazed at the various animals around; a horse with flames coming from it, several buffalo stampeded past, strange that they had 3 tails. A few mouse-like animals of purple scampered past, chased by a larger rat of brown and white, "Raticate!"

Ranma turned to shroud, "Well, looks good don't you think? I wonder who owns all this? Perhaps we could stay here a while and find out what that board over there about 'pokemon' is all about." Shroud blinked, he'd just been eyeing a female Vaporeon, so hadn't heard what Ranma had said, "eon?" Ranma replied absently, "If we're nice enough maybe whoever owns this place will let us stay. You'd like that wouldn't you?"

"Umbreon…"

………

"Hello there, where did you come from? I didn't know Professor Elm had a child?" Ranma swung round the instant the person's mouth opened, ready to waste his opponent, but came face to face with a girl's kind face and smile. He blinked, "Erm, actually I don't know who this Professor Elm is. Me and Shroud just came out of there" He pointed to the forest, "and wondered who owned this place. I mean, I've nowhere to go, neither does Shroud, and I'd actually like to get home, where ever home is."

"Oh my, such a polite little dear, come on then, I'm Casey Professor Elm's helper. I take care of the house and the meals, and he plays around with his pokemon research. I'm not even sure how he gets it done when he's head scared of some of them." She paused here, "I suppose it's why he hired Silver. Dear boy had to leave though when the League opened again. C'mon, let's get you inside!" "Umbreon…"

She poured out drinks and put out snacks for Ranma and Shroud, both of whom ate quickly. Then she took them to a cluttered room with bits of paper strewn everywhere and several computers running; somehow, she didn't have to deliberately make her way around the mess like Ranma and Shroud, and instead just walked over all of it. Strange indeed how the mess seemed a little neater when she passed, "Professor? I think we've found your new ranch hand."

Professor Elm stood from the pile he'd been digging through and screamed, "TIGER!" All three face faulted and Shroud added an eye twitch for good measure, "Eon?" Elm calmed down after that, "Alright, so you're not a tiger. What are you then?" "Umbreon!" "But Umbreon have yellow markings and red eyes, not blue markings and yellow eyes?" all of a sudden he seemed energized, "No matter! We shall see soon enough! To the Type Test Tenderizer!"

Ranma's eye twitched, "Is he always like that?" Casey smiled serenely and answered, "Oh yes, he's always so excited about pokemon in general, isn't it nice?" Ranma face faulted, "He seems raving to me. What's the Type Test Tenderizer?" She again smiled serenely, "It's just a machine that tells you the specifics of a pokemon and determines from there what pokemon it actually is. It's quite fun actually, my own Totodile loves it." Shroud face faulted this time.

………

"Here we are! Just pop your tiger in there and we'll get started!" Ranma blinked, "pop? Tiger? I don't get it." Shroud semed to though, and hopped up into the machine which resembled a tube of sorts. Elm sat down at the console and seemed at once much more at home, "Now, let's see. A dark type, some psychic ability, some latent ice affinity, 3-foot-10-inches in height, 30 Kg mass. Closest match is indeed an Umbreon, so I'll take you down as a rare Umbreon!"

The machine opened on the other side and Shroud stalked out, jumping down and rubbing himself on Ranma, "Eon, eon, eon." Ranma smiled, "surely it wasn't that dirty?" he got an immediate response, "EON!" "Oh my!" "sorry?". Ranma sighed; would he alwas seem to be the only one with any measure of sense?

"C'mon then Ranma, you've obviously raised Umbreon well. How about helping…" There was a sudden explosion and the building shook; Ranma rushed out with Shroud as raised voices were heard, "I TOLD YOU NOT TO USE AN EXPLOSION! NOW WE CAN'T GET ANY OF THE POKEMON!" Ranma sweat dropped big time; these guys were real weirdos. Both were wearing silly white costumes that he'd only seen once before in a comic his father had snatched away instantly.

Sighing, he yelled at them, "Hey! If you want them, you ain't gonna get them free!" The pair turned, "it's a twerp! Arbok! Acid Attack!" "Wheezing! Sludge!" Ranma's eye twitched. Elm and Casey arrived just in time to see Ranma execute his attacks, "Shroud, left! O-Ruoanashingu!" Ranma had decided to name his Ki attack using the line that Shroud had used when they'd first discussed the Ki blast. Jessie and James watched in shock when their pokemon were suddenly and inexplicably blasted into unconsciousness.

"But…" "What…" were the only responses they got out before Shroud a serious set of Slash attacks to Jessie and James received a 12-punch combination to his chest. Just then a high, irritatingly nasal voice issued from behind them, "Nobody gets to bully James and Jessie like that except ME! Now get lost or you'll regret it!" Shroud slowly turned and let his eyes glow a malicious gold. Meowth took one look and decided it wasn't his day, "Err…no problem pal, I mean, just a little thought right?"

"Shroud! Shadow Ascension!" darkness surrounded both Ranma and Shroud, and suddenly caught the trespassers as well, throwing them far up into the air where they became less than a speck in the sky with a distant, "Team Rocket's throwing off again!"

………

"Now that all that's out of the way, let me ask you properly. I'm branching into pokemon research because my old friend, Professor Oak, is getting old and there are just so many new types of pokemon out there to study. I can't do it all on my own though, and I need a helper. You're not even 13, but you've already raised a very powerful Umbreon there, would you like to help?"

Ranma and Shroud had helped clean up after the brief scuffle with Team Rocket, and were now in the living room with Professor Elm, who was trying to get him to stick around. Ranma hesitated; he wasn't from this world, he was sure of that, but he knew values when he saw them. His father had gotten him to take things, he knew now it was wrong, because they were of value and people sold them. Ranma frowned; this sounded like a deal to him, but how did this really work?

On the other hand, Professor Elm thought Ranma had great business sense, "Tell you what, I'll provide room and board, and you'll of course get paid…in fact…where are your parents?" Ranma frowned even more; how could he explain this to the professor that his parents were probably not bothered about him? He sighed; he didn't know another way out of this, "I don't know. I don't even think I'm from around here. Pops threw me into the pit of cats, weird things happened, and next thing I know, I'm rescuing Shroud from dirty great birds."

Professor Elm frowned deeply; this was an academic problem, he was sure of it, but how to go about solving it? Ranma didn't seem to be especially keen on leaving, so where was the problem? Ah yes, his parents must have been left behind! Smiling for the first time, he came to his own conclusion, "Well that's alright isn't it? We'll just have to get you your account without the bother of parents. Either Casey or I will be your guardian instead, alright?" Ranma grinned…

………

Several months passed, and Shroud grew to 4 foot tall at the withers, and his markings became an even lighter shade of blue, almost white. Weighing in at almost 33 Kg, he and Ranma trained daily for a few hours each morning before going about the ranch to take care of the pokemon. Ranma still chuckled at his most enlightening conversation with Professor Elm one evening soon after he arrived…

Flashback start…

"So professor, what exactly _are_ pokemon?" Elm had blinked several times before answering uncertainly, "You don't know what they are? I mean, you've just dealt with some of the most common species, as well as your own unique Umbreon, and you don't know what Pokemon are?" Ranma looked taken aback and somewhat confrontational at that. Elm sighed and carried on, "Those are pokemon Ranma, Shroud, the Tauros, the Ekans you found today, they're all different types of pokemon.

"I guess where you come from it's just 'animals' and that's that. Here we have animals too: the squirrel, the wolf. But we also have pokemon, which are similar to animals, but possessing very different, and far more deadly abilities. That's what pokemon are."

Flashback end…

Ranma frowned, that was certainly a good example of him not being from this world. He was broken out of his musings by a shiver coming from the bag he carried around with him. After arriving, he had let Shroud do his own thing, be it hunting, napping, or running around with several other pokemon on the ranch, but kept the pokemon egg close. Professor Elm had run some tests, but the closest he could tell was that the pokemon in the egg was healthy.

Now though, the egg was rattling and quaking. Running over to a sandbank, he sat down and held the egg firmly in his hands and called Shroud to him, "Shroud! Something's up!" his tiger-sized friend ran up and sniffed the egg, his eyes glowing. Ranma had discovered not so long ago that Shroud actually had some psychic abilities, including the ability to sense things in an uncanny way. Of course, that he sometimes talked to Ranma in his head didn't mean much, of course not.

"C'mon Shroud old buddy, tell me what's up with this guy, he's shaking!" The tiger sniffed the air again and stared into Ranma's eyes, "He's going to hatch. I'd recommend digging a shallow hole and letting him hatch in there." Ranma jerked up, "Yea, you're right!" immediately he charged a relatively tiny ball of ki and blew a small hole in the sand and set the egg in it. The egg seemed to expand as if trying to hold onto something ever growing, then the egg burst open, and a green blur jumped out and held onto Ranma tightly, "Scyther!"

"Wow, a Scyther! Looks smaller than I expected though, isn't it meant to be somewhat larger?" He stopped and cuddled the scyther; a stray pikachu came over and nuzzled the green pokemon. "Oh well, let's get this guy inside then. Shroud, could you let Casey know I need some food and drink for a baby Scyther." The pikachu ran off back to its parents, and Ranma was free to run into the kitchen where Casey was already putting out food.

She looked up and smiled at Ranma before leaning in and giving the Scyther a special smile, "Isn't he cute? I called Professor Oak because Professor Elm is not quite as knowledgeable on pokemon feeding habits. He said to give you these to feed to Scyther and to name him soon. I'll take care of the ranch today; you have fun now, c'mon Shroud!" Ranma cast a bemused glance at her retreating back before sitting down at the table and letting Scyther discover food for himself, "Scyther!"

………

Several more months passed, and Ranma's birthday came. Scyther would reach maturity soon and Ranma had started training him in the martial arts. Not anywhere near the level of Shroud, but he was getting close. Soon after the hatching, Ranma had named Scyther 'Kire' using the Japanese kanji for 'cut' or 'slice'. Scyther had been inordinately pleased and the kanji was soon inscribed between his eyes, 4-foot-11-inches above ground level.

Ranma himself had also grown. Between leaving his home, living with his father on the road, and living with Shroud in the forest, his growth had taken a downturn when it shouldn't have. Fortunately, proper nutrition from Casey set him right, and he now stood at the threshold of puberty at 5-foot-2-inches in height. He'd recently mastered converting ki to other forms of energy, starting with dark energy because it was the closest to him from Shroud, then moving onto fire, ice, electricity, water, grass, bug, and very limited success with the psychic attacks. He'd decided against the poison attacks because he didn't like the use of poison; he also had no idea what ground, rock, and dragon attacks looked like, so he couldn't imitate those either.

Shroud was having great success with the dark, psychic, ice, and electrical attacks, but pretty limited success with the others. Upon researching it with people like Professor Oak, he found that dark types like Shroud had some weakness against fire and fighting type attacks, though Ranma really hadn't gotten round to teaching Shroud the other types yet.

Kire was another matter altogether. The day he was allowed to, he put him through the mill in running. They ran through New Bark Town again and again and again till both couldn't take it. Kire still wasn't as fast as Ranma and didn't have the stamina, but his innate speed and agility kept him up with Ranma, who insisted he himself still needed to train. Kire's blade arms wouldn't let him do the normal Anything Goes kata, so Ranma again modified it so the green armored pokemon could practice along with Shroud and himself.

Ranma theorized that pokemon could actually grow much larger than otherwise thought through proper nutrition and exercise, based on his observations in Shroud, and the possibilities of Kire, who wasn't supposed to reach his full size for another few months.

Silver came home from the Johto League championships, making his exit at 20th place. He seemed perfectly happy with the result though, "Who needs to be so far up there? I'm happy with plain pokemon raising, and the guys'll have more time to run around." He brought Ranma another egg, saying he had no idea what would hatch. Privately, Ranma thought there was a twinkle in his eye that said otherwise, but didn't push.

Ranma also received his trainer license from Professor Elm. It came with a trainer's belt, a pokegear, and an optional vest for items like potions and apricorns. He thanked the Professor and Casey, who'd been seconder for the application, very much and proceeded to try out his presents. He had a pokeball set for Shroud and Kire, but preferred not to put them in; instead, he let them run free and have fun. Professor Elm got a faraway look in his eye as he remembered another young man, rather brash back then, with his own pokemon running around.

………

The day dawned bright and early. Ranma was up an hour before that running around the town as fast as he could with Shroud and Kire. They stopped in an open field and went straight to the katas; Kire was progressing fast, and was already on the mid-level Katas, while Ranma and Shroud went with the highly advanced sets. An hour later, Kire took a break while Ranma and Shroud sparred.

Shroud lost when Ranma caught his head with a turning kick, and Kire came on for Shroud against Ranma. Again, this was an almost entirely different experience; Shroud was very feline in nature and moved closer to the ground. Kire, while not as fast or powerful, had arms and blades which were very dangerous as opposed to Shroud's deadly claws.

The mini-battle lasted several more minutes before they headed back to the ranch where Professor Elm was just starting his leaving speech for the new trainers, "Alright everyone, I'd first like to congratulate you all on graduating into trainers. We're extremely proud of all of you for having done so well; for that reason, we have more than the usual selection of pokemon for you to choose from as your starter.

"The basic types are still the same though; Grass, Fire, Water, Electric. You may choose from Bulbasaur, Chikorita, or Treeko, Squirtle, Totodile, or Mudkip, Charmander, Cyndaquil, or Torchick, Pikachu, Mareep, or Electrike. For those not quite conformists, we also have a selection of Normal types of Doduo, Snubbull, and Stantler. For those who've done exceptionally well, please proceed over to the beautiful red-head over there for your requested pokemon; if you requested an Eevee or a derivative of it, I'm sorry but you will not get those.

"For those planning on competing in the pokemon league, and I know there are many of you, you require a minimum of 6 pokemon to compete, as of this last league challenge when they changed the rules after a certain pikachu wielding trainer waltzed through the first few rounds on just one. This was implemented to encourage equal training and treatment of your pokemon, not just that special one. Also, for your batch, your rite of passage is the Violet Gym and Falkner. The best of luck!"

Ranma smiled as he watched the new trainers collecting their pokemon; he already had Shroud and Kire, no need for another yet since he had ample time to get another 4. He was particularly interested in the Cainwood and Olivine Gyms because he felt they dealt with the Martial Arts much more closely than other Gyms. The Dragon's Den was also an item on his 'must-see' list because dragons were closer to his heart.

He was brought out of his musings over his journeying itinerary by a boy about his age walking up and showing off his Staryu, "Lookie Ranma, my Staryu! What do you think I should name him?" Ranma blinked; he was surprised at being asked. Sure, he and Jeremy had actually become great friends, and the little boy was actually the very top of the class, but did he really want to name the Staryu? He frowned, "Staryu is _your_ friend, Jeremy. Shouldn't you name him?" The response was instant, "But I can't decide! I need something that describes him, but I can't call him wet…at least not yet."

Ranma sighed; he thought for a while, "How about Gyou?" He drew the kanji for frozen in the ground, "It's Japanese for frozen. I think it suits him; he's a water type, and if he evolves, he can use his psychic powers to freeze his opponent." Jeremy thought for a while, "I like it; what do you think Staryu? Do you like to be named Gyou?" the pokemon seemed to look at Jeremy for a while, gauging the boy before patting him on the back with an arm and jumping around in happiness. Jeremy laughed, "Alright then, Gyou it is! Gyou, the Staryu!"

One of the older boys stalked up; Ranma didn't like him much. He had the air of someone who thought he was meant for better even though he barely made it into trainer class. He pulled out a pokeball and threw it out, "you think you're so big now with your own pokemon. I couldn't do this with the class pokemon, but now that I've my own let's battle. Electrike, thundershock!" Ranma didn't move; he didn't have to. Shroud had taken a great liking to young Jeremy.

"Umbreon…" a soft, low growl escaped him and Electrike pulled back, cowed by the tiger-sized pokemon growling at him. The older boy, Ranma now remembered his name to be Randal, dismissed the new entrant with a wave, "don't bother, just give it a thundershock." Electrike whimpered but obeyed; the electric shock hit solidly, but Shroud shrugged it off, literally, and pounced, "UMBREON!" Electrike went down with 4 deep gashes in it. Randal retrieved his pokemon and ran off, scared.

Jeremy didn't seem fazed at all, and held Gyou close to him, "thank you Ranma, thank you Shroud. I need to get back to my mummy, would you like to come Shroud?" giggling, the 9 year old climbed onto Shroud's back and Shroud bounded away. Ranma sighed, "c'mon out Silver, I know you're over there in the bushes to my right, watching the girl over by the ranch talking to Casey." Silver seemed to jump out and run over to Ranma, "I'm going to figure out how you do that one of these days, I swear I will." He grinned to show he was just playing around.

Ranma responded in kind, "I've told you already that there's not a chance of you just becoming psychic like that. You'll have to work hard and that's all I'm saying." He frowned, "I'm wondering when I should set off. Maybe when Shroud gets back from Jeremy, I swear Shroud could be called Jeremy's Umbreon and there wouldn't be the slightest change in behavior." Shroud came back then and obviously didn't take well to the comment and swished Ranma with his long ears, who laughed, "Alright alright, you're my friend and travel with me. I get it."

Jeremy came up with his mother, "Ranma, can I travel with you? My older brother's in Violet so I can go with him from there. Mommy wanted to drive me there but I'd prefer to walk slowly." Ranma smiled, "Well it's perfectly fine by me. I'll take care of him Ma'am, don't worry about him, we'll call from the first pokecentre. There's one between here and Cherry Grove City." Jeremy's mother seemed to consider it more seriously with an older companion factored in, "Alright, but you must call from _every_ pokecentre on the way alright?" Jeremy nodded and smiled while Ranma grinned his charming, slightly cocky grin. Not so long later, he pulled Jeremy away from the remaining pokemon, "you've already got yours, so don't stare. Gyou won't like it. Let's go." At the mention of Gyou, who was in his pokeball, he sobered instantly and followed Ranma with Kire running circles around them and Shroud padding along beside him.


	4. Of the Spoils of War

A/N: Alright I'm sorry it took so long. I rewrote this thing several times before redoing the plotline I put together. R/R please, just in case I have major plotholes. Enjoy!

* * *

When Dark Falls

Chapter 3

03rd June 2005 (original)

28th June 2005 (rewrite)

"Hey hey hey! Howdie ya'll, I've just gotten me a new pokemon. How 'bout a battle to guage it?" Ranma smiled at the stranger; his aura said nothing bad about him other than he had a slight liver problem, and a pokemon battle was something he hadn't really tasted before, "Alright, let's see, Kire! Let's go!" Kire leapt in from behind Ranma and landed on both feet with a crash and studied the opposing trainer, gauging him. The stranger, wearing hiking gear laughed, "Well you have an excellent Scyther there; I'd estimate him to be pretty young but powerful still.

He paused and picked out a pokeball from his belt, "my challenge, Machoke! Karate Chop!" Jeremy instantly found the information in his head, "a fighting type, it requires a power belt to regulate its power or it'll go out of control. You'll want to be keeping out of its way." Ranma grinned instead, "but that's exactly what I'm _not_ going to do. Kire! Aerial Cutter!" it was an attack Ranma came up with by combining Kire's Wing Attack, Slash and Fury Cutter. His opponent frowned and thought aloud, "Aerial Cutter? Never heard of that, or my name's not Jim."

The Aerial Cutter hit hard, and the Machoke was forced backwards by several feet. It leapt right back at Kire with several vicious karate chops and kicks. Scyther took a few hits and blocked or evaded the rest, but his amour withstood the onslaught easily. Ranma frowned; the Machoke was evidently a higher level than he'd estimated, "Kire! Down Flash!" This time it was an original attack using Ranma's training and combining it with Scyther's agility attack, a back bladed slash in the way of a low kick knocked the opponent down dead fast. Scyther crossed his blades over Machoke's neck and the fight ended.

Jim laughed out loud and recalled his Machoke; Ranma smiled and gave Kire a hug. Jeremy frowned in concentration. Jim whispered to the pokeball, since the pokemon inside could hear, telling Machoke that he'd really done well. Ranma walked up and shook his hand, "That was an excellent Scyther, never heard of those moves you used though. I'm off to the mountain road, wadabout you?" Ranma grinned, "we're off to Cherry Grove. Be careful right?" Jim nodded and left.

Ranma and Jeremy kept walking, Scyther and Shroud dancing around each other, sparring. Ranma noticed Jeremy's aura indicating frustration, and decided the boy wasn't going to ask, "You're wondering why you've never heard of the Aerial Cutter or Down Flash before. You're also wondering how a young Scyther like Kire could have won against a Machoke in close-quarters combat." Jeremy's eyes widened with a look of total innocence, but Ranma knew that he really wanted to know.

He chuckled, "Professor Elm said in the 14th lesson that a pokemon's mind is much more developed, in general, than a humans. He also said that a pokemon given absolute free-will could do things humans could, just based on their minds. That was meant to be the 'how to develop your pokemon' lesson. I sneaked a lok at his lesson plans, and corrected it for him, and proved it. You know that I'm a martial artist, and that I train my pokemon in the martial arts, as well as learn certain things from them.

"I learned of the normal pokemon attacks not so long after I arrived, but felt that development, invention, and that sort were key to success in battling, more so than mere power. I need you to promise me that what I'm about to tell you will not get out to everyone else from you." Jeremy nodded quickly, "The Aerial Cutter is a combination of Fury Cutter, Wing Attack, and Slash. The Slash portion provides most of the power, but it's lack of attacking speed is upped when you add in the speed required for Fury Cutter, and further upped on both counts when you add in Wing Attack. The Fury Cutter further provides a solid grounding for Kire to use not just his arm blades, but his wing blades too. The end result is double power, several times speed, and loads of damage.

"The Down Flash in contrast, is not really meant to hurt though it could. If they made a game out of it, Down Flash would be a very low powered thing that made the opponent flinch at most. In essence, the down flash is a high speed attack that combines my training of Kire, a flash attack, and meditate, giving you very little damage. My training comes in the form of giving Kire an incredible amount of speed, along with a mid-combat awareness of which limb is closest to his opponent's legs. The Flash Attack makes everything slow down slightly, and Machoke couldn't see where he was going or where Kire was. This allowed Kire to use his speed and any limb to trip up Machoke, and put him in a position where fighting on would be pointless. I only did this for the surprise element though, since I got the feeling that Machoke was much higher a level than Kire, it was the easiest and fastest way to finish."

Jeremy nodded sagely and seemed to put this into his mind on file. Dark was fast falling now, and Ranma didn't want to be caught in the dark without a camp site. Shroud or Kire could use a flash so they could see, but finding an appropriate campsite in the dark would be difficult at best. Jeremy hadn't slept anywhere other than his room before, so was hoping against hope that Ranma wouldn't do a weirdo and sleep on the cold hard ground. Ranma soon stopped, "See the smoke over there? That's where the nearest pokemon centre is. We won't be able to get there any time soon, so I'll just mark the direction in this clearing, and we can sleep here."

Jeremy's eyes widened in fright, fear, and shock, "surely you don't mean out here in the wildeness? What about bears or other dangerous animals? Mommy said that there were Ursaring and Tyranitar here!" Ranma had just sent off Kire and Shroud for wood, and was digging out a pit for the fire, and suddenly fell over in a massive face fault when he heard what Jeremy, "You can't seriously believe that Jeremy? Ursaring live in caves and mountains, nearer Blackthorn. Tyranitar are so rare that if I saw one I'm more likely to stand there in awe than anything else.

"Besides, Tyranitar live nearer the 'monster' areas like Mount Silver, Dragons' Den, and the Unknown Dungeon. Around here at night you're more likely to meet Hoothoot, Zigaloon, and Rattata. Of course, there are trainers around here with other more powerful pokemon, but nothing near the power of a Tyranitar." Jeremy sighed in relief and took out his sleeping bag just as Kire and Shroud came back with food and firewood, "Ranma, how do I use a sleeping bag?"

Ranma blinked, "you haven't? Oh well, this side faces up, you open this zip here, and later you get inside and snuggle up. I tend to sleep open though, and Shroud sleeps with me sometimes. Kire hasn't been round long enough, but I think he may be nocturnal. All set?" Jeremy nodded and grinned, "What's for dinner?" Gyou then came along with several large fruit in his arms. Ranma grinned, "See? Gyou's already into the camping thing. He's gotten you some nice fruit there. So yes, that's for dinner unless you can get us poultry or something like that." "Scyther..."

………

"Ranma, how do you sleep like this?" Jeremy's tired voice broke the silence in the camp as he slowly awoke from the most uncomfortable sleep in his life. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and patted Gyou, who was wrapped around him in an effort to help him sleep. "Ranma, what's for breakfast?" no answer came, "Ranma?" Jeremy opened his eyes fully now and gazed round their campsite. Ranma was nowhere in sight.

Jeremy panicked; this was his first time out in the wild and Ranma had abandoned him; weren't they friends, even the best of friends, apart from their pokemon? He was just about to start screaming in fear when he noticed Ranma's sleeping bag and traveling bag still there. His sleeping bag was rumpled, as if the user hadn't bothered tidying it up before leaving. Jeremy calmed down and listened; a far away yell of "faster!" reached his ears. Gyou walked up and tugged his trousers; Jeremy turned and knelt to Gyou's level, "Do you know where Ranma is?"

"Hra!" Gyou started jumping away and Jeremy followed through the undergrowth. The cries were getting louder now, and soon they came to a clearing where Ranma was training Kire. Jeremy gasped; Ranma was had both hands behind his back, and was jumping around, evading Kire's powerful slashes cleanly and swiftly. He thought the previous day's fight against the Machoke had been fast, but it was nothing to now; he could hardly see the slashes, and apparently Ranma wasn't getting hit. A soft growl from behind caused Jeremy to start, and he let out a short scream as he turned around and tumbled backwards into the clearing.

After what seemed to be hours but was really just a few seconds, Jeremy opened his eyes and found Kire, Shroud, Gyou, and Ranma staring back at him, "You know, if I didn't know better I'd ask you what school of Martial Arts you studied." Ranma grinned and helped him up onto his feet, "No matter, just about done training for today. Shroud you got our food?" Shroud nodded and stalked away towards the campsite. Ranma clapped Kire on his back and smiled, "You did great today Kire, we'll have you taking me out in a few slashes soon!"

After breakfast Ranma taught Jeremy how to pack his things effectively; they were soon on the road toward the pokemon centre when they were stopped by a boy of about 16 weilding a bokken, "Hold foul trespasser! Tell me by what right you dare trample the sacred lands of the Cuddles? Answer now or face my wrath! Clefable!" Jeremy and Ranma sweat dropped; the Clefable looked to be barely level 40, probably more like 30, and was thinner than it should have been. Ranma studied the Clefable and Kuno for a while, "You want him Jeremy? I need to call Professor Elm about this."

Jeremy nodded and moved forward, "This is public property and we have a right to be here, Gyou! Rapid Spin!" Ranma moved backwards and called Elm as Gyou burst out of his pokeball and flew at alarming speed toward the Clefable, putting a spinning tackle to good use. The supposed kendoist looked alarmed, "You dare strike my noble pokemon! Clefable! Attack with Double Slap!" Gyou evaded well and only one strike got through. Jeremy nodded his acknowledgement, "Gyou! Water gun!" Gyou leapt out of Clefable's reach and let loose with a blast of water that knocked Clefable into a tree.

"Clefable! Leer!"

"Gyou! Icebeam!"

Clefable quickly lost after that, and the kendoist looked ready to explode, "YOU DARE? STRIKE STRIKE STRIKE STRIKE STRIKE STRIKE!" He let loose with several quick stabs and slashes at Jeremy, who couldn't move fast enough. Fortunately, Ranma had finished his call just in time and grabbed the bokken out of the kendoist's grip, "You want a fight, I'm right here." Cuddles pulled out another bokken and charged; to Ranma though, he was far too slow and got knocked out in just 2 seconds. Jeremy poked the fallen kendoist's face and questioned Ranma, "What did you do?"

Ranma cocked his head, "I called Professor Elm so he could lodge a report with the Pokemon League. We're on public property so he was completely out of order, and the way he raised that Clefable makes me wonder how he got a Clefairy to start with, let alone a Clefable. What I did to him was knock him out; I'm a martial artist, as you know, and so is he, to an extent, just that I'm much faster than he is, so he lost out." Something caught the edges of his sensing abilities and he swung in that direction charging a ki blast just in case he needed it.

A ninja dropped onto the ground, "you are indeed good. The young master escaped this morning, and I've been trying to find him. Thank you for making my job easier. As is bade by my mistress, on behalf of house Kudo, you may pick a rare pokemon from our store. Take this note to my mistress, she awaits in that direction a few minutes as the crow flies. I will await the authorities." Ranma himself had no experience with Ninjitsu or Ninja, but decided that honor meant a great deal to them and so set off with Jeremy. The were indeed met by a female. She had flowing black hair and wore a black cloak around her shoulders. She eyed them beadily but took the note very seriously.

"So my brother has again lost. I ill see to it that he has not another chance to disturb other members of the public again. As is the law of house Kudo, you may pick a pokemon from us; follow me please." She brought them to a mansion, apparently where the family lived; impressive as t was, she didn't give them a tour, instead bringing them to a garden where many pokemon played and eggs lay around. She stopped and gave them a moment to take in the view before giving another narration, "you may choose from here, eggs only. The pokemon themselves are bound to my family so they won't go with you, but you may choose an egg to bond with."

Jeremy walked round, inspecting the many eggs there, identifying each with a reference card provided by the girl. Ranma brought out the egg he'd gotten for his birthday and asked her about it. She became wide eyed when she saw it and gaped for a moment, "That's a Lapras egg! How did you come by it? It's almost impossible to find hem because they're always laid in the sea!" Ranma smiled, "I got it for my birthday, but Silver wouldn't tell me what pokemon it held; nice to know it's meant to take a long time to hatch." He girl became misty eyed at the name, "Silver? He's a real man. I do hope he'll come see me again."

She shook herself out of her stupor just as Jeremy came back with a rather unusual egg. She studied it for a moment, "a Ponyta? Very well, raise it well. The short cut to the pokecentre is that way, good luck."

………

"Hi Mummy, guess what? I won my first battle against a Clefable!" Jeremy was on the phone to his mother while Ranma saw to their pokemon being healed. Jeremy had been cuddling the egg all the way to the pokemon centre, constantly talking about Ponyta. Of course, he hadn't gotten to the part about what to name it. "He was hopeless, that's for sure though, Ranma even made a call to Professor Elm to report him! See Mummy? I can be a good trainer." Ranma could hear the grin in his voice.

"Your pokemon are healed sir, are you going on immediately or would you like to stay?" Ranma's attention was torn away from Jeremy's phone call by Nurse Joy, the first he'd seen, but if Silver was right, not the last he'd see, "Yes we'll be staying here tonight if it's possible? We'll finish off the road to Cherry Grove tomorrow. Thanks again!" He picked up the pokemon, releasing Shroud, Kire, and Gyou before attaching the pokeballs to their belts, "You done on the phone, Jeremy? We should start training you know?" Jeremy quickly finished his last goodbyes and scampered out the centre, hot on Ranma's heels.

"Shroud, you and Kire take Gyou over there to that clearing alright? I'm gonna train Jeremy so you two train Gyou, OK? Shroud studied him a bit and nodded, nudging the other two along. Ranma turned to Jeremy, "I know there aren't many like yesterday, but there will still be people around who will try to harm you as a person, rather than you as a trainer. So you will learn from me; just the basics, nothing fancy or advanced like me, but enough for you to survive."

………

"That's him, the one with the Umbreon. On my signal we get him." Two shadows leapt away and crouched on either side of the clearing where Ranma was sparring with Shroud while Kire, Gyou, and Jeremy took a break. One shadow appeared to be a cat of some sort, while the second shadow had short hair. The middle shadow had long hair and wore gloves, apparent as she raised a hand, starting a click that was the signal.

"That's enough for now Shroud, we want to be ready when our attackers show up, don't we?" Shroud purred and subbed himself against Ranma's leg, "Umbreon…" _click_ the trap was sprung, and 3 shadows leapt out of the bushes upon their knowing prey, "Team Rocket strike!" Ranma turned, grinned, and fired two Ki blasts at the humans while Shroud launched into a full on claw scuffle with the Meowth. Jessie and James jumped up, wince in pain, and pulled out their pokeballs, "we don't know how you found us out, but you'll regret it! Seviper! Arbok! Wheezing! "

The four pokemon squared off against Ranma, "You think this is going to stop me? Guess again!" he stretched then folded himself in with a whispered, "Umisen-ken" and disappeared from sight. Everyone was shocked and didn't make a move till Seviper suddenly howled and dropped, unconscious with what looked like multiple snake bites on his back. As the other three looked on in horror, Arbok and Wheezing suddenly banged into each other, unconscious as well. "Wobafett!" the blur, blue pokemon jumped out of it's own pokeball, and suddenly noticed a human sneaking up on Cacnea.

"Woba!" it leapt and tried to smack the human, but Ranma was too fast and switched techniques, "Yamasen-ken! Welcome Gate White Fang Fingers!" Wobafett wondered why he'd suddenly stopped in mid air, then noticed in incredible pain in his middle and looked down, only to see the human's hand thrust into his middle; a cry of pain made it out before he collapsed unconscious. Cacnea turned round and followed James's order of "Needle arm!" Ranma evaded it quickly though, and jumped back, "O-Ruoanashingu!" a ball of bright white energy flew at the 8, blasting them away, "Team Rocket's blasting off again!..."

………

"Hmmm…I've reviewed the video of your loss, and I agree for once. This new trainer is really something, and we must bring him over to our side, he will be a great asset. I will have the other teams alerted, you three will have a vacation." The screen winked out and a man in the shadows turned his chair round, scratching the head of the Persian beside him, "Yes I think that will do nicely. With them out of the way, we can move several steps closer to achieving world order." "Persian…"

"Sir, your orders sir!" Giovanni turned to the grunt, "Ranma Saotome must be captured, he will be an asset to Team Rocket, as will his pokemon."

* * *

A/N: Now what would I do next...


	5. Wandering, Wavering, Whacking, Walking

When Dark Falls

Chapter 4

08th June 2005 (original)

28th June 2005 (rewrite)

"That wasn't bad for a first time Jeremy, don't be so hard on yourself; we just need to increase your stamina and strength." They were eating breakfast in the pokemon centre and Nurse Joy was attending to several other pokemon. Jeremy claimed he was still sore from the training the previous day, and Ranma assured him it would stop eventually. They discussed Ranma's plans for Jeremy.

"Well first of all, I can't teach you everything to do with Martial Arts. I consider myself a student because I try to learn more on the Art. What I believe I can do that will help you is to teach you the basic Kata, and start you off on exercises. You need to run; you need to run a lot. Endurance is key to the martial arts, and I can't emphasize this too heavily, you must run. Everyday, an hour at least, pure running.

"Secondly is the speed training. You can't win if you can't hit; you must train your speed, which is basically the second Kata I will teach you. As you strengthen your lower body with the first Kata, and speed up in the second Kata, you should be able to last long enough for you to escape at least.

"Lastly is power. Everyone likes to hit hard, and enjoy the feel of 'power'. But they don't know the real way you get power; yes muscles and weight lifting help, but it's also technique. Most use their arms only; punching involves the entire body. I expect you to do pushups, hand stands, jumping jacks, all apart from the third Kata I'll teach you." Jeremy frowned; it sounded like a lot for just the basics of matrial arts, "Is it really that much? I mean, do I really have to do all that?"

Ranma raised an eyebrow, "Well no you don't, but that's only if you don't want to learn. I won't force you, and really I won't hold it against you, but I'd like to think I taught you something, first of all, and secondly that idiot the other day showed that being a pokemon trainer doesn't mean you're all powerful or anything like that. When I learned, my pops made me run from wolves and fight for food, and I'm not going to put anyone else through that." Jeremy pouted, "I still think it's too much. Can't I run for just half an hour or something?"

Ranma laughed, "if that's what you're worried about you should have said so. I thought you meant all of it. Yes you can run less, half an hour or so, but later longer times alright? For today, three rounds round the centre, then half an hour long distance; mine's six and one, so don't complain." He chuckled and stood up; starting off on his running while Jeremy finished his breakfast.

………

Ranma and Jeremy had just finished their first set of Kata when Ranma stopped and looked straight at a clump of bushes and frowned, "You know you can actually come out? I'm surprised you've had the patience of an hour watching us without trying to challenge either of us." A man stepped out of the bushes seemingly like out of a cloak, "How did you know I was there? I was the best in the Ninjitsu course." The man was not pleased that his cloaking methods had been seen through by a seemingly upstart martial artist.

Shroud glared at him and growled; Kire would have raised an eyebrow if he'd had one; Jeremy's pokemon, on the other hand, seemed more disconcerted and immediately went into fighting stances. Ranma sighed, "you used a ki technique to mask yourself, which basically makes you bright as day to a practitioner of ki manipulation. Of course, your appearance would be startling to anyone not able to use ki, but that's understandable."

The ninja growled, "very well, I am Thorn, and I challenge you both to a match of our own abilities and that of pokemon." Ranma smiled, "me or my student? Two on two then, two of you, one each for myself and my student. I will personally show you the abilities of a ki practitioner. Shroud, your go." Thorn snarled and pulled a pokeball from an unseen pocket and threw it out, "Sneasel. Fury swipes!" Ranma smiled, "Shroud, your call."

Thorn heard this and threw his head back, laughing, "His call? You must be worse than I thought to give your pokemon such leeway, he'll leave you!" Ranma kept smiling, "Go on Shroud." "Umbreon…" Shroud disappeared just as Sneasel closed in with his fury swipes, appearing behind the Dark/Ice pokemon and viciously stabbed it on the back swiftly, "Umbrrr…" Ranma grinned, "Excellent choice, the Saotome Umisen-ken's White Snake Claw of Venom, derived from the White Snake Venom Reliable Fist of the same art. Show him another Shroud."

This time, Sneasel rushed forward with a Shadow Punch, but Shroud had different ideas; he faked forward so that Sneasel attacked too early, then bit Sneasel's arm before delivering a body slam that laid Sneasel out to Thorn's shock. Ranma laughed out loud at this, "that was the Saotome Umisen-ken's Armed Door Fierce Tooth Decision, executed slightly differently from normal because Sneasel's arms end in sharp claws. Your mistake was underestimating Shroud and going for mid to low leveled attacks. Shroud was most recently measured at about level 40, but your Sneasel looks to be around level 45. Never underestimate your opponents."

Ranma moved back to watch Jeremy. He still hadn't thought of a name for his Ponyta, but it hadn't hatched yet, so there wasn't too much of a concern as of yet. Thorn closed his eyes and recalled Sneasel, "you are right, I underestimated you. But I will not do that again; Scyther, start off with Swords' Dance!" Jeremy recalled what he'd learned, "A bug flying type with a powerful attack factor and speed. Wings give it maneuverability and amour gives it high endurance. Gyou, we start with ice beams at half power." Gyou the Staryu jumped in front and began firing beams of freezing ice at the fast moving Scyther.

Thorn had indeed learned his lesson and didn't start attacking immediately; instead, Scyther attacked only openings a few times, waiting for the ice beams to stop. Jeremy quickly caught on though, "Gyou stop! He's waiting for you to lose power; go with spinning tackle first." In the background, Ranma nodded. Jeremy was a quick study and took to his lessons swiftly. Only after a few shots he'd learned what Thorn was doing instead of becoming hasty like many new trainers he'd seen in the classes. Thorn smiled, "it's hard to believe you're just a beginner. Scyther, quit swords dance and move to wing attack."

Jeremy narrowed his eyes as Gyou and Scyther clashed repeatedly in their physical attacks, Gyou mostly coming off worse, "Gyou! Move to Freezing Rapid Spin!" Ranma was impressed; it was only a day or so since they'd talked about combining moves, and already Jeremy was combining rapid spin, one of Staryu's more powerful physical attacks with ice bean, an ice type attack that Scyther was weak against, "Good." Jeremy turned and winked at him.

Thorn was more impressed, "So you're as inventive as your teacher; I commend you. Scyther, use Mega Drain at range!" Jeremy grew worried, "Gyou! Evade first, attack second!" the match was turning into a long one and Gyou was showing signs of fatigue. Scyther, he guessed, was around level 35 or so, while Gyou was only level 25 to 30, a definite disadvantage. He hoped Gyou could continue dodging till an opening came up. Gyou mirrored his sentiments and the first opening that came along, quickly fired off an Ice Beam while Scyther charged for another Mega Drain.

Scyther wondered why he suddenly couldn't move. One moment he was charging to fire a Mega Drain at the annoying Staryu, next moment he couldn't move at all and the cold feeling started seeping in through his amour; a horrid thought struck him, _he'd lost!_ He began struggling against the ice holding him, and felt it starting to crack even as his limbs started locking up from the cold. On the outside, Jeremy breathed a sigh of relief as the Scyther became encased in a block of ice. He knew the rules obligated him to allow about 10 seconds for the opposing pokemon a chance to break out, after which the match was his, so he sat and waited. 10 seconds passed and a small chunk of ice fell off, but no more came. Scyther had lost.

"YES! I DID IT! I WON! RANMA! DID YOU SEE THAT?" Ranma laughed and grabbed him in a hug, "That's great Jeremy, you did your best and read the situation correctly and won. That's great!" Thorn was shocked; how could he lose? Both his Sneasel _and_ his Scyther? How could that be? They were two of his more powerful pokemon! He growled and recalled Scyther, "Very well, now you and me. Let's see what you can really do. He put his pokeballs away and got into a fighting stance.

Ranma pushed Jeremy away, Shroud and Kire falling into an audience with Gyou, as Ranma moved into his own fighting stance, "of course; show me what you Ninja can do." Thorn shot forward, swinging a medium length blade in what seemed to be wild arcs. But Ranma knew better and could see the strokes were deliberately trying to force him into something. He guessed darts of some sort, but wasn't sure. Instead he went with his original intention. He leapt upward so and drew his hands back, molding a tightly packed ball of ki energy. Throwing his hands forward, the ball went straight towards Thorn, who evaded swiftly but not far enough to escape the blast entirely.

The ball struck the ground; the ball left a crater; Ranma landed; nobody moved. Thorn bowed to Ranma, "you've won. I have no idea how, but you blew a 20 foot crater. I wish you well." And he leapt away. Ranma snorted, "And he thinks it's impressive. Oh well, his loss."

………

"So Ranma, do you know where we're going?" Jeremy was behind Ranma, walking through tall grass. Kire was jumping around having fun while Shroud was traveling from tree to tree instead. Gyou had returned to his pokeball because he didn't like the grass. Ranma frowned, "Well I thought I did, I mean the map says Cherry Grove should have been straight ahead from the turn, but apparently not. In fact, the map doesn't even say there's a field anywhere near there." He paused and frowned, "Of course, if we take the nearest tall grass field on the map as our location then we're just north of Cherry Grove City."

Jeremy eye twitched; if this had been a cartoon, he could just imagine the camera spanning out into space, showing them just a few meters north of Cherry Grove, walking around a tree wondering where they'd seen that set of footsteps before. Unfortunately for him, Ranma tapped a scratch mark on a nearby tree and muttered to himself, "I'm sure I've seen this mark somewhere before." Jeremy face faulted.

They did, however, find themselves a large lake where they decided to stop for lunch and let their pokemon play. Gyou enjoyed it immensely and Kire used the opportunity to practice his flying and hovering capabilities. Shroud humfed and settled for a nap in a nearby tree while Ranma went to look for firewood. Jeremy unpacked some food and decided to practice Kata to pass the time. Shroud must have sensed this because he woke up and watched Jeremy carefully, not unlike a hawk.

Jeremy froze when Shroud leapt down from his vantage point and nudged Jeremy's various body parts a bit, correcting his position. Jeremy was surprised, "You know this one too? Wow, I didn't think Ranma taught you guys this much." Shroud gave him a look that seemed to say, "Now you can't seriously be _that_ daft can you?" Jeremy finished the Kata without too much further mishap and turned to Shroud, "So what else did Ranma teach you?" Ranma had returned and noticed the last bits of Jeremy's Kata, "You need greater concentration Jeremy, don't worry about Shroud, Kire, Gyou, whatever's going on around you.

"You need to decrease your speed and increase your precision. The speed you're going at is fine, except that you're making mistakes that an experienced person wouldn't; you need perfection here so that you'll have as few mistakes out there as possible. Just for your information, I modified those Kata you know so Shroud and Kire could use them. I taught Shroud everything I could saftely modify to his circumstances though the Umisen-ken proved most simple. Now lets see how you've come along; First kata, begin."

………

"That's them, no idea what they're up to though. You remember what the boss said right? Capture, no killing. Let me do the talking and just back me up." Two shadowy figures watched Ranma and Jeremy from a tall tree not so far away, no doubt planning another attempt by Team Rocket. One was female, had a pale face, long legs, and dirty blond hair, as well as 4 pokeballs attached to her belt. The other was male, with rough features, black eyes, green hair and 5 pokeballs to his name. The Girl leapt out of their tree to another nearby and pulled out 3 pokeballs and signaled her partner. He joined her and pulled out another 3 pokeballs, totaling 6 pokemon suddenly appearing in front of Ranma and Jeremy.

First was a Golbat. It was a large bat evolved from Zubat, and enjoyed sucking blood from larger creatures. Second was a Raticate, a large rat with large teeth which was known for its speed and learning capabilities. Third was an Arbok, a large cobra evolved from ekans with long poisonous fangs; following it was a Grimer which seemed to slough off layers of grime and filth. Fifth and sixth were a Geodude and Wheezing respectively. Geodude was basically a large rock with arms and eyes while Wheezing was made up of two purple lumps of poison. Jeremy turned to Ranma, "What do we do here?"

Ranma smiled at him, "Here we either wait for them to make their introductions and then attack us, or we wait for them to make introductions, and try to induct us, or we just take them out. Personally I prefer just taking them out of business straight away; what do you think?" Jeremy smiled at him, "If we take them out we can get to Cherry Grove after lunch. If we wait for them we'll have to wait till tomorrow, you know how slow they are with intros, don't you?" Ranma grinned at him, "Then taking them it is, Shroud! Kire! Let's go!"

The Rocket members were shocked that he'd not even let them do some talking, "Forget it then, just take them out." They threw out their remaining 3 pokemon: a Magma, Weepingbell, and a Cyndaquil. Ranma grinned at the new ones and made his move, "O-Ruoanashingu!" Three large balls of ki streaked toward the offending nine pokemon who tried to escape, unsuccessfully, and ended up just 4 left and 5 unconscious. Ranma dashed forward while Shroud and Kire took on the Arbok and Wheezing respectively; he evaded a jet of fire from the Magma and sent a ki enhanced punch into the Geodude, which flew back and crashed into the tree the Rockets were hiding in. He back flipped over a flame jet from the Magma again, this time such that it roasted the Team Rocket members instead, and landed behind the Magma.

From the Magma's point of view it was incredibly disconcerting. He'd never missed with a flame attack before, but this human had just evaded him twice. Speaking of which, perhaps he shouldn't be burning his trainers and instead find that elusive human. On the other hand, what's that burning feel on his back? Magma turned just in time for Ranma to land a fist of sharp ice, and Magma went down.

From Ranma's point of view, he decided Magma just weren't fast enough; he leapt behind the Magma and executed the Umisen-ken's White Snake Venom Reliable Fist, combining it with frozen fists and arms. When the Magma finally turned round, Ranma had decided that the long name just didn't suit the ineffectiveness of the attack against such a highly defensible pokemon. Instead, when the fire pokemon finally turned round, he combined the rock-breaker technique with his ice abilities and went for the clincher; Magma never quite knew what hit him.

Ranma turned to Jeremy, who was watching in awe, "Right then, power is actually important. So here's your chance to practice Gyou's water power." Jeremy blinked a few times then grinned, "Gyou! Hydro Pump!" a scream later the rockets disappeared. Ranma chuckled, "Surely they'd know better by now?" he turned round, surveying their surroundings, noticing the changes. Smiling he turned to Jeremy, who was patting Gyou, "Well it seems the obscured the way out, lets go."


	6. ABANDONMENT

Hi out there, no idea how many will read this, and frankly I doubt many will. Still.

I've hit snags on the idea I tried to bring forth in crossing the Pokemon series with the Ranma ½ series, and tried various angles to cover. Simple problem, difficult answer: Lacking ideas.

I've tried to rectify this and pull the fiction together, but alas I'm unable to for reasons both personal and professional. This series is therefore defunct. If you wish to read other fics I've written, feel free to. I welcome both criticism and encouragement, though please remember this is FICTION I'm writing.

I'm not going to abandon the idea of crossing the two universes, just going to put it together differently. Of course, after I've put together my other works-in-progress.

Comments, etc, are welcome, those who've read the original When Dark Falls, and the (briefly) re-written version, thank you whether or not you reviewed.

Wen


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